Design of Everyday Things in 16 visuals

16 key insights from one of my favorite design books with examples of digital design elements.

If you are like me, who reads books and makes notes just to never look at them again, then this article is for you. According to research, we forget most of the things we read/learn within the first 24 hours. I read “The Design of Everyday Things” by Don Norman two years ago, and when I re-read the book recently I found out that I had forgotten most of the stuff.

Also, as opposed to text, visuals are processed 60,000x faster by our brain. Thus, I have started creating a visual summary of my favorite design books. If you have any suggestions or requests for the next book, you can mention them in the comments. Hopefully, by doing this, I can help you and me both remember more stuff. So without further ado, let’s get into it.

Disclaimer: This article is my interpretation of the book, and the example I have given here is different from what Norman has given in his book, so I highly recommend you to go and read the full book as it has so many good insights and you might find different meanings and lessons from the book.

Norman starts the book by talking about the psychopathology of everyday things. Norman says that two of the most important characteristics of good design are discoverability and understanding.

Discoverability: Can users figure out what actions they can take with that product?

Understandability: Can users easily understand how to use the product?

For example, if doors are required to be pushed, then a vertical plate with “Push” written on it is a good design, and if it is required to be pulled, then provide a handle that naturally indicates the behavior of pulling.

To make sure your design is discoverable and understandable, Norman gives 7 principles to follow. We will deep dive into each of them with an example of digital design elements like an input box.